NEW ARTWORKS: Marianna Gioka

This column, is hosting new artworks, of younger and older artists who either are on exhibition this days or had recently been exhibited, in order to grope together with the artists all the aspects of their work, just as in the case of Marianna Gioka. Through the series of the artworks that presents at the The Breeder Gallery, she builds her own city of feelings in a way almost invisible, non-figurative, minimalist, but with the absolute power and the incredible freedom that provide the large surfaces.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: The Breeder Gallery Archive

We observe that in your artworks, you use very large surfaces, what is the reason, what they serve?
The large dimensions help me to catch the atmosphere that interests me. In the new series of works, they give me greater freedom.
Your painting is aniconic and abstract, but you are going through a path from Constructivism to Futurism. How interact all the above?
I do not know if going through such a period, my work may is non-figurative, but the human presence is there, because I think about the human. Despite the absence of the human figure, when I paint I try to portray the role that people play. The acts and the feelings are a fountain of inspiration. There are many things such as the spots. Spots represent the emotions I feel and express, from images I see on the street and influence me.
The white with a few gray spots, build a surface of the canvas, just as the architects of the modern overcrowded cities, what is the relationship between art and architecture in your work?
The lines and the spots are like fighting with each other, as like the one if flying over the other, the one is trying being more visible than the other; these lines are we, the humans. Many times, I see their effort to outflank (the lines and the spots) in the space in whatever way they can. Flying one over the other, for better projection, to be the one that will have the last word and make me to leave the pen for a while, to go nearby and to gaze. This is how we are also (the humans). Other times they are some, that ender with order and immediately the same time I realize that, my pen gets a dynamic mood that wants to intervene them and remove this order, creating something more liberal and accidental. It is as if a skein unfolds, is like a story that you want to know the end immediately. However, there is no end to my work… there is a discontinuity… It is the nature of my work that is endless… I build my own city of feelings. I love Architecture and admire Architects like Zaha Hadid, but in Architecture, there are rules to be followed, in my work although I use classic materials I do it in a chaotic manner without to follow any rules. All the buildings-masterpieces have an emergency exit. However, in my work there is not Exit. For me, sounds, people, colors, are reflected in symbols, in a world, as I perceive it.
White is color or non-color? What serves for the messages you want to transfer?
I do not care much about color. The grey of the sky dominates the canvas, has an equilibrating function, is neutral and joins the edges as a thought-the extreme violent with the extreme sensitive. In my previous work, there was a follow-I was building through the spots one story, here it is not easy to build -and while grey creates measure and balance, at the same time through all this freedom, I feel strength and safety.
Your paintings appear like  frozen videos, is conscious this relation? Are you thinking to use the video as another means of expression?
I have video and projections as paintings. With the materials I painted on my work, I projected and edited on video, it had and a music shade. I do not exclude video as medium…

Info: The Breeder Gallery, 45 Iassonos Str, Athens, Duration: 20/11/14-31/1/15, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat: 12:00-18:00, http://thebreedersystem.com